


You Can Choose Freedom

by sagittarius3001



Series: There Are No Happy Endings [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, Closeted Dean, Dead Castiel, Dean Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Demons, Determined Castiel, Heartbroken Dean, Helpful Sam, M/M, Other, Self-Sacrifice, Self-Sacrificing Castiel, Still dealing with Lucifer, Strong Castiel, season five
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2018-09-27 00:50:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9942827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sagittarius3001/pseuds/sagittarius3001
Summary: “Dean, he knew what he was doing. He did it to save us. To save all of us.”





	1. You Can Choose Freedom

They knew it would get pretty hairy. Of course, they hadn’t expected there to be twenty extra demons in the warehouse. All they knew was that there was a fallen angel trapped inside, and Cas was adamant about getting her out. 

They had been walking to the impala when Dean finally asked the brooding Castiel, “So...was she like, your girlfriend or something?” 

Castiel narrowed his eyebrows. He seemed tense and pensieve. Of course, he was always tense and pensive. Cas helped Dean put some of their bags in the back seat. 

“No. But she was a good friend, and she would be incredibly helpful in fighting Lucifer. She might just tip the scales in our direction,” Castiel said. 

“But we don’t even know exactly who has captured her,” Dean protested. “We’re walking into this fight with zero information and a half-assed hope she will even help us if we win.”

“Oh, she’ll help us. I know her. She will fight on our side. That’s why she fell,” Castiel crossed his arms and stared as Dean forcefully. 

“I still think it’s a trap,” Sam said, opening the car door and placing a cooler of beers in the back seat. “I mean, seriously, Cas. What if they are just trying to capture us? All they need is to threaten you and me, and the angels will have Dean saying yes to Michael in a heartbeat.” 

Castiel slammed the door close on the impala, obviously pissed, “Adriel is our ticket to defeating Lucifer, and I will not stand by as she is either killed or tortured. So either you are with me, or you aren’t. I’m going to save her anyway.” 

There was a lapse of silence as Sam and Dean both sighed and got in the car. Castiel slid into the back. They rode in discontented silence. 

It was outside the warehouse that Castiel could tell something was wrong. Too much power radiated from the place. It stunk of demons. She hadn’t been captured by angels, but demons. And in her weakened human state, she was practically helpless in fighting. 

“This is a horrible idea,” Dean muttered under his breath. Cas could hear him, but it didn’t matter. He was excellent at killing demons. Dean had the knife. They had plenty of salt, holy water, and Sam had an extra angel blade. They had guns with devil traps etched into the metal. This would be a piece of cake.

At first, it was. Castiel killed the first several guards with ease. But soon, the entire place swarmed with demons like ants on a discarded piece of bread. Cas could feel himself growing weaker, and he found himself more and more trying to protect the Winchesters. 

Dean, however, was having the time of his life. Between shooting, slicing, and the like, Dean loved sending these sons of bitches back to hell. He hadn’t even noticed that the floor was covered in bodies. Castiel had to drag him away to run up the stairs.

It was two more floors of this chaos. Sam and Dean were now bloody and altogether tired of the constant supply of demons. But Castiel was still determined to get to Adriel. So they dragged themselves through more and more piles of demons to get to the last staircase, where Cas was sure the fallen angel was. 

There were only a couple demons up there, Alastair chief among them. There was a small, black haired woman lying in a chair. She had obviously been tortured, and blood drained from the table like a river. Dean could sense Castiel’s rage at seeing his sister mutilated. But Cas looked almost as bad as the Winchesters. He was covered in blood, and he walked with an obvious limp. Alastair was more than his match. 

“So,” Alastair said gratingly, “this is the little angel bitch I’ve been hearing about.”

They began fighting, the Winchesters taking the other demons in the room as Castiel fought Alastair. But Cas was more sluggish against the demon. He felt his vessel giving out to exhaustion. He fought back with everything he had. Alastair looked almost delighted while fighting him, as if he was looking at a brand new toy. 

“Maybe when I kill the Winchesters and beat you,” he said, pushing Cas near a corner, “I’ll get torture you as well. Not necessarily for information, just for fun.”

That’s when Cas noticed how poorly the Winchesters were faring in their fight against the other demons. Dean cupped a stab wound on his arm while trying his best to swing Ruby’s knife. Sam was on the other side, getting tossed around by some demon. Cas felt a fist close around his heart. They hadn’t wanted to come here, and he had made them. Now, they were injured and losing, and it was all Castiel’s fault. 

Alastair used Cas’s faltering as an opportunity to stab him with a dagger. This wouldn’t kill him, but it radiated pain throughout Cas. He kicked Alastair away with the energy he had left. It was only a matter of seconds before the entire team would be at the mercy of the demons. He had one last card to play. One last thing that would vaporize all of these demons. 

“Well?” Alastair crossed his arms as the Winchesters were finally subdued. Dean was forced against the wall with a blade to his neck, and Sam was on his knees in front of a demon. 

“You’re out of options, Castiel,” Alastair said nasally. “Surrender.”

Cas made eye contact with Dean, who looked dilapidated but very determined. He knew how angry Dean would be if he did this. But he couldn’t let them die. They were all he had left. They were his family. 

And in one motion, Cas turned his blade in and stabbed himself. The blast would vaporize all the demons, Castiel had made sure of this. Alastair’s face registered a look of shock. And the last thing Cas saw was Dean’s paralyzed look of horror as everything went white.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I posted this separately bc I have trouble figuring out the AO3 system sometimes but yeah here this is the end of the short story I guess

Dean couldn’t even remember where he was when he woke up. When he opened his eyes, it was almost as dark as if he had just kept them closed. His body ached all over, his arm had been very clearly stabbed, and blood was still pulsing out of it. The room around him was completely destroyed. He could see his brother a few feet away from him, knocked out but clearly alive. What had happened? Where…?  
Then everything hit him at once: the hundreds of demons, Alastair, the bloodbath searching for Castiel’s angel friend Adriel, Cas-  
Cas!  
Dean lifted himself to his feet in a frenzy. Where was Cas? His last memory flashed in his head. There was no way Cas would do this to them. There was no way he would leave them, right? There was no way Cas would leave Dean. Right?  
Cas’s small body was in the middle of the room. He wasn’t moving. And the floor was burnt with an impression of Cas’s wings. The floor seemed to sway beneath Dean’s feet. There was no way. No way. Please God tell me he’s not-  
Dead.  
Cas’s eyes stared into space. The image burned itself into Dean’s brain. Dean couldn’t protect him. He couldn’t protect him from Alastair. He couldn’t protect Cas from himself. Dean’s whole body trembled as he lifted his eyes to see if at least Adriel, Cas’s angel friend, was alive. But no, her wings were burned onto the floor as well, her lifeless body unmoving. All of this was for nothing. She was dead.  
“Dean…?” Sam’s voice rasped from behind him. “Dea- Oh my God.”  
Dean turned back and helped Sam to his feet, his thoughts scattered. He couldn’t believe it. He still couldn’t believe it.  
“Dean, I’m so sorry.”  
As if sorry meant anything. As if sorry could bring Cas back. As if somehow that would fix it.  
“Help me with his body,” Dean ignored Sam’s prying gaze. “We need to burn it.”  
So they picked up Cas’s body and lugged it down the stairs through the pile of demon bodies and blood. Sam opened the back of the car, and Dean gingerly placed Cas’s body in the back of the car. He stepped back and closed the door, and Sam and Dean stood in silence.  
“Dean,” Sam tried again hopelessly, “He knew what he was doing. He did it to save us. To save all of us.”  
“All of us?” Dean shot back, his voice low and gravelly. “Adriel’s dead. Cas is dead. We came up here and we basically lost everything.”  
“Dean-”  
“Just stop, Sam. Just stop.”  
The car ride to Bobby’s was silent. Dean couldn’t have even spoken if he wanted to. The idea of Cas just lying in the back of his car with his eyes closed could almost make Dean believe that he was just sleeping. Except Cas didn’t sleep, and he had a hole through his chest where he had plunged his Angel blade. Cas’s lifeless eyes kept flashing through his head. They haunted him, he couldn’t get them out.  
“Dean!”  
Sam’s voice broke through Dean’s thoughts. He had a phone in his hand and was holding it out for Dean to take. He looked concerned and fearful.  
“Who is it?” Dean’s voice sounded almost as dead and lifeless as Cas’s body in the back of his car.  
“Bobby,” Sam furrowed his eyebrows, which Dean ignored and took the phone.  
“Hey Son,” Bobby said softly through the phone. Dean felt his body suppress a sob. “Heard you had a rough time of it.”

“We have Cas’s body. We’re driving it back to your place so we can properly burn it.” Dean monotonously said, fighting the urge to cry.  
“I heard. You alright?”  
Dean knew he was trying to be nice, but asking if someone’s “alright” after they’ve lost someone is the shittiest thing you can ask because of course they aren’t.  
“Peachy,” Dean said. “We should be a couple more hours. Talk later Bobby.”  
He hung up before he could hear Bobby protest. Sam stared at him, worrying himself to pieces silently. He looked like he was going to burst with worry. But he did that so much that Dean just ignored him.  
“Dean…” Sam finally sighed.  
“Don’t.” Dean stared determinedly at the road.  
“We have to talk about this,” Sam stressed the word “talk”. As if talking will bring back Cas.  
“No we don’t. Especially not right now.”  
Sam gave up and stared out the window and Dean ignored him. And they drove that way the rest of the trip to Bobby’s.  
***  
It was almost four by the time they pulled into Bobby’s, but he had already completely set up the fire pyre. He greeted them at the car, but Dean didn’t make eye contact with him. Sam and Bobby exchanged sorrowful looks and they carried Cas’s body to the pyer. Dean stared as they wrapped Cas’s body in a sheet. He desperately hoped Cas would open his eyes and tell them he was alive by some miracle. But he didn’t. They placed his small body on the wood, soaked it in gasoline, and set the whole thing on fire.  
And just like that, he was gone.


End file.
